Raad van Ministers verwerpt Duits plan tot uitsluiting verdachte vliegvelden (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU interior ministers on Monday (8 November) failed to endorse a German plan to blacklist certain airports in terrorism-prone countries, in the aftermath of mail bomb plots from Yemen and Greece, but instead agreed to set up an "ad hoc group" to look at ways to strenghten air cargo security across the bloc.
"We were lucky those attacks were thwarted. Any anti-terrorism measures basically have to involve an examination of means of transport," Belgian interior minister Annemie Turtelboom, who chaired the meeting, said during a press conference.
The temporary "ad hoc group" composed of transport and interior experts will table proposals by 2 December "to help authorities in airports carry out inspections more effectively," she said.
They are likely to come up with "check-lists" and "risk analyses" to determine what qualifies as a "clean" or secure airport.
German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere had come up with a five-point plan that included the provision of blacklisting airports in countries prone to terrorist activities.
"There was no agreement that there should be black-list of some countries," Ms Turtelboom said. Most countries felt such a measure would be too extreme, and, logically, Cologne Airport, which let a Yemeni parcel bomb with explosives hidden in printer cartridges through undetected only to be discovered in Britain, would have to be blacklisted as well.
The EU has a black-list of unsafe airlines banned from flying in the 27-nation bloc but it does not have such a list for airports.
Germany's response came after two security blunders in less than a week. As well as the Yemeni parcel, one Greek booby trap was shipped via cargo plane to Berlin and made it all the way to an office adjecent to Angela Merkel, where it was detonated by police.
Germany, France, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands decided to ban all air freight originating from Yemen, while the US has banned ink cartridges from planes altogether.
An Al Qaeda affiliated group in Yemen has claimed responsibilty for the plot, which could have brought down passenger planes if the cartridges were detonated mid-air. The much less powerful mail bombs from Athens were allegedly sent by a far-left Greek group.
Meanwhile, the European Commission on Tuesday is set to impose blistering fines on a cartel of 13 airlines for having fixed air cargo prices amongst themselves, Financial Times Deutschland reports.
British Airways is likely to get a fine of €120 million, while Air France-KLM is also among the sinners, together with other non-European carriers. Germany's Lufthansa is not included in the list of firms as it informed Brussels about the cartel.
The case dates back to 2007, when EU's anti-trust body accused these companies of forming a cartel for air cargo. Headquarters on both sides of the Atlantic were raided, including those of British Airways, Air-France-KLM and the Nordic SAS.